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Congress Expected to Pass One-Week Extension; Americans Under Winter Weather Alerts; Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) is Interviewed about Ukraine; Masking Being Urged as Covid Surges. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired December 13, 2022 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:30:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: This involves members of that far right Oath Keepers militia group. This, of course, is after two leaders of that group, including the founder, Stewart Rhodes, were actually convicted of the charge earlier this year. What's different about this trial?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, so, first of all, these defendants aren't alleged to be leaders of the Oath Keepers in the same way that Stewart Rhodes was. That said, you don't have to prove -- as a prosecutor you don't have to prove that the person was a leader in order to be a member of the conspiracy. We used to argue to juries essentially everyone who's in the movie is in the cast, whether they're the leading player, a supporting player, or a bit player. Same thing for a conspiracy. Everyone who was in on the agreement, leader, bit player, is part of the conspiracy.

The other thing that prosecutors are going to have to prove here is that the agreement involved the use of force. That's required for seditious conspiracy. And in the first trial, the prosecutors convinced the jury that two of the five defendants were in on that plan to use force and so that's going to be a key question in this one as well.

HILL: We'll be watching it.

Elie Honig, appreciate it, my friend. Thank you.

HONIG: Thanks, Erica. All right.

HILL: Back on Capitol Hill, the House and Senate expected to pass a short-term extension before government funding runs out on Friday.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told senators yesterday to be ready to take quick action on a one week extension, which would give lawmakers then more time to try to secure a longer term full year finding deal.

CNN congressional correspondent Lauren Fox joins us.

So, we were talking yesterday about them having trouble getting to that longer deal. They clearly didn't. I mean, so they're going to get a week. I mean do we have any confidence they then get to a longer term funding deal?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: One aide that I was talking to yesterday told me that they were probably going to be making some progress over the next 24 hours. And the sign that they have this short-term deal might actually signal that they are making a little progress on the bigger deal because if they felt like they weren't even closer on that bigger deal, then why give themselves just another week. They might have to give themselves more time.

Now, that's a lot of reading the tea leaves at a moment when there's still a lot of uncertainty up here on Capitol Hill on this government funding.

But here's what's happening today. The rules committee will have a meeting today. The House will be prepared to vote expeditiously on this short-term spending bill tomorrow. Then it will move over to the Senate.

The Senate week usually ends late Thursday afternoon, so that might give you a little bit of indication of how quickly this could move in the U.S. Senate. At that point, they will have another week to continue these negotiations. But we should note, they still have not agreed on how much money to spend next year to fund the government. The fact that that simple outstanding fact is still to be determined tells you that they still have a long ways to go.

Jim and Erica.

SCIUTTO: Fantastic. We'll be covering it.

Lauren Fox, thanks so much.

We do have some news just into CNN. Severe weather slamming much of the country this morning in the midst of a major winter storm. Now reports of tornadoes in Texas and Oklahoma.

Our Ed Lavandera, he's at the airport in Dallas, Texas, where sirens just went off.

Ed, sirens for approaching tornados?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes, we are in the midst of a tornado warning here at -- on the western side of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. We are at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport where essentially everything has come to a halt here as this really strong line of severe storms is starting to make its way through north Texas. And this is a storm system that has already spawned several tornadoes from Texas and Oklahoma.

Behind me you can hear the alarms and the alerts that are going off here throughout the airport and in the terminal area. Airport employees have been escorting people to stay away from the windows as we await this strong line of severe storms that has a serious threat and possibility of creating tornadoes as it moves from Fort Worth into the mid cities and into the Dallas area as well. So, these alerts going off here at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, where we've been waiting to board a flight for much of this morning. Everything has really come to a halt as we wait for this line of storms to blow through.

HILL: Wow. All right, well, I know you will continue to keep us posted. Stay safe, my friend. I know you will. Appreciate it, Ed, thank you.

There is some sad news just into the CNN newsroom here. The head football coach at Mississippi State University, Mike Leach, we've learned, has passed away. The school confirming Leach died last night after complications from a heart condition. They also shared a statement from Leach's family, which reads in part, Mike was a giving and attentive husband, father and grandfather. He was able to participate in organ donation at UMMC as part of a final act of charity.

SCIUTTO: The university president had this to say about Leach. Quote, Mike's keen intellect and unvarnished candor made him one of the nation's true coaching legends. I will miss Mike's profound curiosity, his honesty and his wide open approach to pursuing excellence in all things.

Leach was a head coach in college football for 21 years, including time at Texas Tech, Washington State University.

[09:35:01]

He was just 61 years old.

Coming up next, Ukraine warns the aid coming in will not touch the cost of an energy blackout. Our next guest just returned from seeing the desperate need there in person. I'm going to speak to Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton. What he is emphasizing to presidents and colleagues following his visit to Ukraine. That's coming up.

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[09:40:01]

SCIUTTO: Well, this morning, the suffering for the Ukrainian people continues. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has asked for $840 million in aid specifically to support the country's critical infrastructure, especially electrical infrastructure, through the winter. Speaking to dozens of world leaders at a conference focused on providing immediate support to Ukraine, Zelenskyy warned that the price tag was less than the cost of a blackout as Russian strikes have left millions of Ukrainian civilians without electricity amid sub-zero temperatures.

Here with me now is Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton. He just returned from a trip to Ukraine as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation.

Congressman, thanks for taking the time this morning.

REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): Good to see you, Jim. SCIUTTO: First of all, to the suffering there right now, this is a

deliberate campaign by Russia to really make the Ukrainian people suffer by taking away their electricity here. Not the first time we've seen Russians target civilians. Is there any immediate help that the U.S. and the west can provide to help alleviate that suffering in the near term?

MOULTON: Yes, there's fundamentally two things we can do. We can provide them air defense systems, specifically patriot missiles, and we've got to accelerate delivery of those, to take these Russian missiles out of the sky. The second thing that we can do, which we are doing, and we're doing it, I think, as best we can, is get them the repair parts to fix their electrical grid. Of course, it's a race against time and it's a race against how many missiles the Russians still have to throw at this problem because we can repair a transformer and then they can take it out again the next night. So, fundamentally we've got to knock these missiles out of the sky.

SCIUTTO: That, as you know, has been an ongoing request since the very start of this war, Ukraine pushing for more air defense from the west and more quickly. The U.S. has been, and west has been, giving some but not everything Ukrainians have been asking for and as quickly as the Ukrainians have been asking for it. I mean why is that? And is it - is it the patriots now that you believe will make a real difference?

MOULTON: I do believe that that's probably the one system that they don't have that will make a big difference. You know, throughout this entire war effort, the administration has done a remarkable job of getting the Ukrainians things that they need. And that's why they're winning this war. That and their incredible fighting spirit.

But all along members of Congress, I think on both sides of the aisle, have said, you're doing the right thing but we need to do it more quickly. And that's certainly the case today.

Now, a few months ago their focus was on different things. Their focus was on artillery systems.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

MOULTON: Now that Putin has shifted their - his tactics, the Ukrainians need to adjust their defense.

SCIUTTO: I want to ask about another topic that I know is close to your heart, and that is the situation in Afghanistan. Because last week there was an opportunity to extend what's known as the SIV, or the special immigrant visa program designed to give visas to the many tens of thousands of Afghans who served alongside the U.S. military, the U.S. government there. There was an opportunity to extend it a year. That didn't happen. That language was taken out by Republicans.

What's your reaction to that decision?

MOULTON: This is a betrayal. It's a betrayal not only of our Afghan allies, but of our own troops. Of our troops, like myself, who made that promise that if you come and work for us, if you put your life on the line for America, we will have your back. And so when Senator Grassley and folks like him who have no idea what it means to be in a combat zone, to have your life at risk, and to put your life in the hands of someone else, they have no idea what that means. They're not only breaking the promise that our troops made, they're making it much more difficult for future troops in future conflicts to have that promise accepted by allies that we need.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

MOULTON: They're risking lives, not just Afghan lives, but American lives by this anti-immigrant, frankly outright racist approach to this problem.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

I meant to mention you are a veteran yourself of there. We have a veteran in the next hour discussing exactly that frustration you're talking about.

Of course, the most immediate threat are to these Afghans themselves. I've been trying to help a family that I've known for years get out of the country for more than a year and a half. I have a piece out on CNN right now. They're ones of tens - they're one family of tens of thousands. And the numbers are just incredible. Some 50,000 people already approved ready to fly. That's SIV approved and their family members. The State Department, before the flights stopped, were getting just 250 people out a week. At that rate that's four years for those people and the many more behind them.

Is anything being done to quicken that pace? Because while they're waiting, many of those Afghans, their lives are under threat.

MOULTON: They're being hunted down.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

MOULTON: Four years means four years for the Taliban to hunt down these Afghan and American heroes and kill them before they get to the United States. And the State Department, unbelievably, stopped flights a few weeks ago.

[09:45:01]

Why? For the World Cup.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

MOULTON: Where are our priorities? Where is our moral compass, Jim? We have to do better.

SCIUTTO: You have been saying that for some time. A whole host of voices have been saying that for some time. The process is getting no quicker. I'm seeing - it's exasperating how slow it is. And every time you cross through one checkpoint in effect, there's another one. And then there's just the challenge of getting out of the country.

The administration's aware of this. Why aren't they moving to speed it up?

MOULTON: I don't know. But I can tell you that there are veterans on both sides of the aisle who are pushing the administration, have been pushing the administration, and will continue pushing the administration because ultimately the delays that you described is just bureaucracy. It's bureaucracy that's killing people, that's putting their lives at risk. And, ultimately, there are Afghans who just won't make it here because we couldn't get the damn paperwork done in time.

SCIUTTO: Can you explain to folks at home more specifically and in more detail what this means for veterans of the Afghan war like yourself, because I've spoken to veterans who say it is, in very real ways, contributing to the stress, the PTSD that they're experiencing.

MOULTON: Because it's a personal betrayal. You know, when you put your life on the line for someone, I don't think there's any worse feeling than being betrayed. And right now veterans feel like they are betraying our Afghan allies because we, we veterans, are being betrayed by our own government.

SCIUTTO: Strong words.

Seth Moulton, thanks so much for your service and your attention to this story. We appreciate it.

MOULTON: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: As I said, if you're interested at home in this story, I've got a piece up on CNN right now about one family's challenge getting out of the country. It's worth reading because you'll really get a sense of the difficulty and the threats they are facing.

HILL: Yes, it absolutely is.

Still to come here, the overwhelming challenge that hospitals have been facing. We've been talking about this now for weeks since Thanksgiving, this trifecta of respiratory illnesses. Bed capacity at their highest point this year. So, how are hospitals managing the emergency? We're going to take you inside, next.

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[09:51:40]

SCIUTTO: All right, nice to see it going up rather than down. The Dow is up now almost 600 points. About 1.5 percent heading into the day after an encouraging November inflation report. I believe the market is n ow officially in bull market territory from the lows it reached earlier this year.

HILL: We like seeing those green arrows.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: We expect to hear from President Biden and that report coming up in the next hour. We're going to bring you that statement live.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

Well, another story we're following, and maybe you and your family have experienced this, my family certainly has, hospitals across the U.S. are swamped, now with patients young and old, with respiratory illnesses.

HILL: Medical experts say, I know you've heard this, it's this trio of illnesses. You have Covid-19, RSV, the flu, really pushing some facilities to the breaking point.

CNN's Stephanie Elam spoke with hospital officials now responding to that surge of patients and at least one with a very clear warning, be careful.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERS ELIASEN, RECOVERING FROM COVID: For a while I was really worried about Covid.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Anders Eliasen had good reason to worry after an aortic aneurysm last year in the thick of the pandemic.

ELIASEN: I had like open chest surgery.

ELAM: But he masked up and never caught Covid, until this month.

ELIASEN: I didn't feel like I was invincible. I thought it was inevitable that I was going to get it.

ELAM: Eliasen thinks he caught Covid at an NFL football game where he let his guard down.

ELIASEN: And I was like, oh, shoot, I forgot my mask.

ELAM: Fortunately, Eliasen is recovering at home.

DR. CHRISTOPHER LONGHURST, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, UC SAN DIEGO HEALTH: This is really an unprecedented experience.

ELAM: But across the country, scenes similar to this, overflow health care workers are struggling to catch their breath as hospitals fill with sick patients battling a trifecta of respiratory viruses, Covid, RSV and the flu.

LONGHURST: We've seen a real increase in cases, particularly since Thanksgiving. So Covid is up, the flu is up other respiratory viruses are up as well.

ELAM: The situation is so overwhelming at UC San Diego Health, they had to create space using tents in parking lots to triage patients. LONGHURST: We've got beds in hallways in the emergency department for

patients who have been admitted and are waiting for hospital beds. And we're even reconfiguring conference room space so that we can safely care for patients in places that we would not normally do it.

ELAM: Hospitals were the fullest they have been throughout the pandemic last week, reaching 80 percent capacity, an 8-percentage point jump in two weeks, and the highest since January's omicron surge.

ELAM (on camera): Is the triple-demic as bad as you saw during the height of Covid?

DR. JEFF SMITH, EVP, CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL CENTER: The answer is, not yet. Probably the most RSV we've seen in the past decade. Really October into November. And now we've seen a rapid decline. That, as I said, has overlapped this Covid rise, which has happened a little bit slower and a little bit later and then now is superimposed by this very rapid rise in influenza.

ELAM (voice over): And, yes, you can get more than one of these viruses at a time.

DR. EDWARD JONES-LOPEZ, KECK MEDICINE OF USC: The more viruses, the more infections you have, the more the higher the risk of one of them leading to more serious disease.

ELAM: Mask mandates haven't returned yet, but virus spikes in New York and Seattle have led to health department recommendations to mask up indoors and in crowds.

ELIASEN: It feels like I'm on the upswing now.

ELAM: As for Eliasen, after spending last December recovering from his surgery, he plans to see his grandparents for the holidays after testing, monitoring symptoms, and wearing an N-95 mask.

[09:55:02]

ELIASEN: This is going to be our first Christmas, you know, normal Christmas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM: And New Mexico is another state to add to the list that's sounding the alarm over concerns over these viruses overwhelming their hospitals.

And keep this in mind, Jim and Erica. For basically two years there were barely any flu cases, and that's because we were masking and social distancing during the heart of the pandemic. So that goes to show that those procedures do work. And I know people are very tired of it, but it's actually probably time, especially if you're getting ready for the holidays and getting back together, to pull these bad guys back out. Wear those masks. They work.

HILL: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Goodness.

HILL: I mean we're hearing it from officials and health experts, right?

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: They're certainly recommending it.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I'll tell you, the flu's burning through a lot of households.

Stephanie Elam, thanks so much.

Still ahead, quite a story we're following here. The FTX co-founder who was charged with defrauding at least a million investors, he heads to court in the Bahamas. We're getting new details about that indictment that actually came from U.S. prosecutors. They're seeking extradition. We'll have more details, next.

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